I B R B B T Islam and Buddhism Relations from Balkh to Bangkok and Tokyomuwo_1312 177..186 Imtiyaz Yusuf Georgetown University Washington, D.C. On truth’s path, wise is mad, insane is wise. In love’s way, self and other are the same. Having drunk the wine, my love, of being one with you, I find the way to Mecca and Bodhgaya are the same. (Ru¯mı¯, Kulliyya¯t-e Shams-e Tabrı¯zı¯, no. 302) Introduction his is the first time in its ninety-nine year history of publication that The Muslim World journal is dedicating a special issue to the theme of Islam-Buddhism. This Tinitiative highlights the expansion of the journal’s coverage and is a new point of departure in the venture of Islamic Studies, which up until recently, has largely been restricted to relations between adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths. Hopefully, in the near future, this journal will also consider Islam’s relations with the other Asian and African religions. The history of interreligious relations and exchange between Islam and Buddhism extends over their meetings in West, Central, South, Southeast and Far East Asia. This historic exchange dates from the ages of the Silk Road (4 BCE–1400 CE) and the Age of Commerce (1450–1680 CE). The early meetings were followed, in some cases, by conversion to Islam, as in the cases of Central and maritime Southeast Asia. Yet, there remained regions where Buddhism and Islam continued to exist side-by-side, as in the cases of India and mainland Southeast Asia. Buddhism and Islam — History of Relations Since Buddha and Buddhism pay scant attention to the concept of theos — God, it is often remarked that Buddhism is not really a religion but rather a philosophy. However, worldwide evidence of the practice of Buddhism illustrates that it is a religion with a philosophical bent. T. William Hall defines religion as follows, “Reli- gion is the varied, symbolic expression of, and appropriate response to, that which ©2010HartfordSeminary. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148 USA. 177 T M W • V 100 • A/J 2010 people deliberately affirm as being of unrestricted value for them.” With this definition in mind, we can see that Buddhism fits into the category of religion rather than philosophy. There is a long history of relations between Islam and Buddhism. Indeed, the religious encounter between Islam and Buddhism is as old as Islam itself. It was and is an encounter between two totally different religions in terms of their doctrines and worldviews. Yet, there are deep and subtle compatibilities between them when viewed from the perspectives of history and the phenomenology of religion. The first encounter between Islam and ashab¯ al-Bidada, or the Buddhist commu- nity, took place in the middle of the 7th century!! in the regions of East Persia, Transoxiana, Afghanistan and Sindh. Historical evidence suggests that early Muslims extended the Qur’a¯nic category of ahl al-Kita¯b (people of the book, or revealed religion) to include the Hindus and the Buddhists. During the second century of Islam or the eighth century CE, Central Asian Muslims translated many Buddhist works into Arabic. We come across Arabic titles such as Bilawhar wa Bu¯dha¯saf and Kita¯b al-Budd as evidence of Muslims learning about Buddhism. In spite of being aware of the idol-worship of the Buddha, Ibn al-Nadı¯m (d. 995 CE), the author of al-Fihrist, comments that: These people (Buddhists of Khurasan) are the most generous of all the inhabitants of the earth and of all the religionists. This is because their prophet Budhasaf (Bodhisattva)hastaughtthemthatthegreatestsin,whichshouldneverbethought of or committed, is the utterance of ‘No.’ Hence they act upon this advice; they regard the uttering of ‘No’ as an act of Satan. And it is their very religion to banish Satan. There is evidence of Buddhist survival in the succeeding Muslim era of this region (Central Asia), such as the Barmak family of Buddhist monks, who played a powerful administrative role in the early ‘Abba¯sid dynasty. The ‘Abba¯sids ruled from Baghdad during 750–1258 CE, governing most of the Islamic world. The Barmakids controlled the Buddhist monastery of Naw Baha¯r near Balkh in addition to other Iranian monasteries. There was also the continuation of several Buddhist beliefs and practices among the Muslim converts of Central Asia. For example, the Sa¯ma¯nid dynasty, which ruled Persia during the ninth and tenth centuries, invented and modeled the madrasa or Muslim religious schools that were devoted to advanced studies in the Islamic religious sciences along the pattern of the Buddhist schools in eastern Iran. Similar may be the case of the pondoks or pasenterens —theMuslimreligiousseminariesinSoutheastAsia. The Muslim religious scholar and historian Abu¯ Ja‘far Muhammad b. Jarı¯r al-Tabarı¯ (839–923 CE), who was born in A¯mul in Tabaristan¯ , northern! Persia, mentions that Buddhist idols were brought from Ka¯bul, Afghanistan,! to Baghda¯d in the ninth century. It is also reported that Buddhist idols were sold in a Buddhist temple next to the Makh mosque in the market of the city of Bukha¯ra¯ in present Uzbekistan. 178 ©2010HartfordSeminary. I B R B B T Rashı¯d al-Dı¯n Tabıb¯ , also known as Rashı¯d al-Dı¯n Fadl Alla¯h al-Hamadha¯nı¯ (1247–1318 CE), the grand vizier at the¯ Ilkha¯nid court in Persia! and the author of Ja¯mi‘ al-Tawa¯rı¯kh — Compendium of Chronicles or World History, also discussed Buddhism and its features in his compendium, though al-Bı¯ru¯nı¯ did not discuss Buddhism in his Kita¯b al-Hind. The second encounter between Islam and Buddhism took place in South and Southeast Asia beginning around the 12th–16th centuries A.D. In the case of India, there is a common misunderstanding that Islam wiped out Buddhism through conversion and persecution. Regarding this, Islamicist Marshall Hodgson remarks: Probably Buddhism did not yield to Islam so much by direct conversion as by a more insidious route: the sources of recruitment to the relatively unaristocratic Buddhism — for instance, villagers coming to the cities and adopting a new allegiance to accord to their new status — turned now rather to Islam than to an outdated Buddhism. The record of the massacre of one monastery in Bengal, combined with the inherited Christian conception of Muslims as the devotees of the sword has yielded the widely repeated statement that the Muslims violently ‘destroyed’ Buddhism in India. Muslims were not friendly to it, but there is no evidence that they simply killed off all the Buddhists, or even all the monks. It will take much active revision before such assessments of the role of Islam, based largely on unexamined preconceptions, are eliminated even from educated mentalities. The third meeting between Islam and the Hindu-Buddhist civilization took place in Nusantara, the Indo-Malay archipelago, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It was a sort of meeting between the monotheistic, monistic and non-theistic religious traditions. Islam arrived here in its mystic orientation, which was shaped by the Persian and Indian traditions of Sufism. The Muslim individuals who brought Islam first to Indonesia and then Malaysia and southern Thailand in the 12th–15th centuries were Sufi mystics. In religious terms, it was an encounter between the Hindu view of moksha — liberation — through the notion of monism, the Buddhist notion of nirvana —enlightenment—throughtherealizationof sunyata — emptiness — and the Islamic concept of fana¯’ — the passing away of one’s identity through its mergence in Universal being — as presented in the monotheistic pantheism of the Sufis. Gradually there emerged a hybrid culture, particularly in Java and in other parts of Southeast Asia, resulting in an Islam that was mystical, fluid and soft, and aspiritualismthatispeculiartotheregion. Buddhism as a Non-Theistic Religion Humanity has experienced the Ultimate Reality in three ways, i.e., from outside, as in the cases of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and other Semitic prophets; from within, as in the case of the Indian religions! of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism; and through a medium, as in the case of the Shamanistic and African religions. In this sense, ©2010HartfordSeminary. 179 T M W • V 100 • A/J 2010 the Buddha encountered the Ultimate Reality from within, and resulted in nirvana — enlightenment — which equals sunyata — nothingness. The Buddhist concept of sunyata is closer to the Abrahamic religious notion of transcendental monotheism. Usually monotheists, i.e., Middle Eastern Jews, Christians and Muslims along with their religious counterparts from Europe, are quick to comment that the Asian religions of Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism and Shinto are polytheistic religions. The reasons for this lies in Middle Eastern monotheism, which condemns any superficial sign of the worship of many deities as constituting polytheism. The root cause of this lies in being unable to distinguish between personal and non-personal views of the Ultimate Reality. Mono- theistic religions view God in personal terms, while non-theistic religions view the Ultimate Reality in two ways: 1) the worship of many devas — gods — at a popular level; and 2) a non-personal Ultimate Reality at the philosophical level. Max Müller defined it as henotheism, i.e., worshipping a single non-personal universal principle called Brahman, which is monistic in nature in relation to the human soul — the Atman — and also accepting of the existence of other deities. “Non-theistic concepts of deity are seen as alternatives to theistic notions regarded as unacceptable on religious, as well as affective and rational grounds.” In Greek, Indian and Chinese religious traditions, theistic and non-theistic notions of deity are not seen as contradictory but are viewed as complementary.